5 characteristics of French ILLUSTRATION

In the XVIII century different thinkers gave rise to the philosophical and political movement that became known as illustration. The development of this period is often associated with the French Revolution of 1789 and the processes of social transformation that came with it. However, it is the result of the philosophical and scientific work of different minds since the late seventeenth century. Because of this, in this lesson from a teacher we will see the main characteristics of French illustration as well as we will tell you what he and his main thinkers consisted of.

To give meaning to the French illustration is to fit a political, social and cultural movement that transformed the history of Europe and influenced different latitudes. It is worth starting with his own name; the act of "illustrating" or "divulging".

Illustration has its beginning to late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, also know as "Age of Enlightenment". It is not strange to think about it, since from the previous century with Isaac Newton and his

Principia Mathematica (1687) a paradigm of thought was established that sought to replace the merely theological explanations of the world with a science based on empirical evidence.

The French illustration was a peak moment where humanity would have acquired a progress and the lights that would lead to new structures of power and thought. As Marialba Pastor points out, “the term Enlightenment designates a rich, varied and sometimes contradictory that arose in the eighteenth century and led to a social project that influenced the great revolutions of the late of this century ”. It was just Immanuel Kant who, in your text Answer to the question: What is Enlightenment?, gave a generic definition that is promulgated to this day:

Enlightenment is the liberation of man from his guilty inability. Inability means the inability to use your intelligence without the guidance of another. This incapacity is guilty because its cause does not lie in the lack of intelligence but rather of decision and courage to use it for himself without the tutelage of another. ¡Sapere aude! Have the courage to use your own reason!: here is the motto of the illustration "

In other words, it gave priority place to reason, as the faculty that guides the human being that allows him to build an ethical society. This posture was accompanied by a questioning the functioning of Christianity and religion in Europe, as they sought to get away from fanaticism and superstition.

Now, the French illustration also had an established discourse that rejected the power of the monarchyof the moment. Since we have understood what this movement consisted of, we can choose its main characteristics.

It is worth bearing in mind that the illustration was charged with a search for knowledge, a new ethics, a determined idea of ​​the human being and the political order. For this reason, its characteristics are polyphonic, they speak to us at different levels:

• Enact equality and freedom: as it will be seen already in the French Revolution, the ideals of equality, freedom and fraternity were sown with the characters and works of the illustration. The fight against the established order sought to make human beings think they were free. It is pertinent to clarify that due to the ideology of that moment, women, Afro-descendants and indigenous people, and even Children lived scenarios of exclusion that the thinkers of the illustration did not include within their idea of ​​freedom and equality.
• The faculty of reason: influenced by the encyclopedic movement and philosophical currents such as rationalism, French illustration conceived that reason was the guide that every human being had to find freedom individual.
• It sought to spread knowledge for social progress: Within the movement, various authors had pedagogical influences, they believed in the democratization of knowledge and in the maxim that every educated people is a people that will progress.
• It was developed together with the encyclopedism: As we will see in the next section, authors such as Voltaire who laid the foundations for enlightened thought also collaborated with the encyclopedists and the need to collect knowledge in large volumes that would explain the world and be accessible to the population.
• He sought to eradicate the absolutist power of the time: Framed in monarchical contexts, the trips that various figures of the time undertook allowed them to discover other modes and forms of government. Thus, the French illustration postulated that the monarchical regime should be compensated with the creation of a parliament. As will happen at the end of the 18th century, the French Revolution would change the social order, giving the possibility of the new bourgeoisie creating a diverse political system.

Every cultural movement has its heroes and representatives. During 1800 various authors such as Montesquieu, Voltaire and Rousseau were in charge of giving basis to the discourse of the Enlightenment that he was based on the construction and compilation of knowledge, where Reason and Progress were placed as the central figure of humanity.

Montesquieu (1689 - 1755)

Carlos de Secondat, better known as the Baron de Montesquieu, was the son of a family of the French nobility. Although he studied law, following the family tradition, he was inspired to travel and learn about the different political models in Europe.

It is said that he began the illustration with his Persian letters out of 1721. Additionally, in the rest of his works, such as Law spirit from 1734, we find that will that repuls the monarchical order and advocates a power structure inspired by English parliamentarism; a division of powers that did not focus on the king. As a result of his thought and written production, he is considered today one of the base thinkers of future democracies and modern Western political philosophy.

Voltaire (1694 - 1778)

Perhaps the most poetic and literary of the enlightened, he was one of the great theorists and activists of the French Enlightenment. With a life full of exiles, clashes with knights and barons, Voltaire was one of the most uncomfortable feathers for the monarchy of his time.

For example, one of his best known works, Philosophical Letters of 1734, makes a strong criticism of the French regime based on a comparison with British politics that he came to know from living in Britain. In his texts we can recognize the predominance of reason over passion, as well as a rejection of the Church.

Rousseau (1712 - 1778)

Although he was born in Switzerland, the Rosseau thought he permeated and impacted the French context of the 18th century. His work is derived in several branches. On the one hand, he worked alongside the encyclopedists D'Alembert and Diderot. For another, he developed a political thought that was linked to his narrative sensitivity and his interest in pedagogy.

From his texts is extracted the famous maxim that promulgates “man is good by nature, society corrupts him”. This idea alienated him a bit from the thinking of Voltaire and Montesquieu. Among his most important works we find The Social Contract from 1762.